SBI appoints Pradeep Kumar as MD Corporate Banking

New Delhi: Country's biggest lender State Bank of India has appointed P Pradeep Kumar as its Managing Director (Corporate Banking).

Kumar, as one of the four managing directors, will look after the corporate banking portfolio of the bank.

"...With effect from December 27, as per notification of government of India, P Pradeep Kumar will be the Managing Director & Group Executive (Corporate Banking) of State Bank of India (SBI)," the bank today said in a statement.

Kumar, a post graduate in statistics, joined SBI in 1976 as a probationary officer and held several key assignments including the bank's US operations. He also served as the managing director of State Bank of Travancore.

Before moving to the present assignment, Kumar was deputy managing director and group executive of the corporate banking group, which looks after corporate accounts and project finance of the bank.

Kumar will occupy the post till October 31, 2015.

SBI, which has a chairman/chairperson unlike other Public Sector Banks (PSBs) who have a combined post of CMD, has four MDs. It also has over a dozen deputy MDs and over 35 chief general managers (CGMs).

When Arundhati Bhattacharya was elevated in October as the chairperson, the bank had only 3 MDs.

With the appointment of Kumar, who had previously also served as treasury head and deputy managing director, the four MDs mandate is fulfilled.

The other three MDs are Hemant Contractor (International Banking), A Krishna Kumar (National Banking) and S Viswanathan (Associates and subsidiaries).

With the appointment of Kumar as MD, the bank is breaking away from its tradition of having an MD as the chief financial officer (CFO).

Since Bhattacharya was elevated as chairperson from her previous position of MD and CFO, the CFO post is currently being held by deputy MD Rajendra Kumar Saraf.